Islamism and the politics of fun

Public Culture

Volumn 19, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 433-459

  Bayat, Asef ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 36448938745     PISSN: 08992363     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/08992363-2007-004     Document Type: Article

References (115)

1. Linda Herrera, "A Song for Humanistic Education: Pedagogy and Politics in the Middle East," Teachers College Record (forthcoming).
2. See Muhamed Abdul-Qoddous, "Mowajehe sakhina ma'a qiyadat al-television wa al-iza'a" ("Severe Confrontation with the Directors of Television and Radio"), Liwa al-Islami 43 (1988): 43-44.
3. For a more detailed discussion of how saints' festivals in Egypt are contested, see Samuli Schielke, "Habitus of the Authentic, Order of the Rational: Contesting Saints' Festivals in Contemporary Egypt," Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 12 (2003): 155-72.
4. Cited in Cairo Times, August 30-September 5, 2001.
5. Cited in Iran Emrooz, April 1, 2002.
6. Discussed in the conservative Islamist monthly Partow-e Sokhan, cited in Nowrooz, 6 Aban AH 1380/October 28, 2001.
7. Hafteh-nameh-ye Sobh, 22 Bahman AH 1379/February 10, 2001; my emphasis.
8. Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion (Boston: Beacon, 1963), 236-39.
9. See the Islamist conservative weekly Partow-e Sokhan, 10 and 17 Esfand AH 1379/February 28 and March 7, 2000.
10. On these institutions, see Partow-e Sokhan, 24 Esfand AH 1379/March 14, 2000. Imam Sadeq quoted in Partow-e Sokhan, cited in Nowrooz, 6 Aban AH 1380/October 28, 2001, 11.
11. See Jebhe, 22 Esfand AH 1377/March 13, 1999, 8.
12. The Persian word sangin (heavy) signifies precisely that moral and morphological solemnity, as opposed to sabok (light), which connotes triviality and shallowness. Interestingly, the word heavy (thaqil) in Egyptian Arabic has a negative connotation.
13. On "mourners of joy," see Nowrooz, July 29, 2001. The statement on war-front days was issued by the Cultural Institute of Jenat-e Fakkeh, an extremist Islamist organization, on the occasion of Nowrooz 1998, printed in the weekly Jebhe, 22 Esfand AH 1377/March 13, 1999, 8.
14. Thus, for example, "Death to those who are against Velayat-i Faqih," instead of "Long live Velayat-i Faqih."
15. Jebhe, 22 Esfand AH 1377/March 13, 1999, 3.
16. Jebhe, 22 Esfand AH 1377/March 13, 1999, 3.
17. Shalamche, no. 40, Mehr AH 1377/September-October 1998, 6.
18. Shalamche, no. 40, Mehr AH 1377/ September-October 1998, 6.
19. For a sympathetic treatment, see Fariba Khani, "Backstreets of Forbidden Love," Zanan, Khordad AH 1377/May-June 1998, 6.
20. Such a tyranny over the everyday could not escape the attention of the nation's greatest poet, Ahmad Shamloo, in his well-known piece "In This Dead End": They smell your breath; you better not have said, "I love you." They smell your heart. Strange times are these, my darling . . . And they excise smiles from lips and songs from mouths. We had better hide joy in the closet....
21. Arrest of youths playing music in public cited in dailynews.yahoo.com, July 25, 2000.
22. Drawn on official interviews with youngsters cited in Behzad Yaghmaian, Social Change in Iran (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002), 65-71.
23. Reported by the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA), June 17, 2004, cited in Iran Emrooz, www.iran-emrooz.net.
24. Reported in Mahmoud Golzari's paper in the workshop "Young Girls and the Challenges of Life," Tehran, May 2004, cited by the ISNA, 22 Ordibehesht AH 1383/May 11, 2004, www.womeniniran.com.
25. The contribution of Muhammad Hadi Taskhiri, of the Organization of Islamic Culture and Communication at the Second International Seminar on Hijab, 28 Aban AH 1376/November 19, 1997, reported in Zanan, Mehr-Aban AH 1376/October-November 1997, 8-9.
26. This finding of young people's indifference was reported by national radio and TV, the Organization of Islamic Propaganda, and the Organization of the Friday Prayers (Setad-e Namaz), cited by Emad Eddin Baaqui, Payam-e Emrouz, Ordibehesht AH 1379/April-May 2000, 14. The statistic on their refrain from daily prayer is from a report by the head of Tehran's cultural and artistic affairs, July 5, 2000, www.nandotimes.com.
27. Seyed Hossein Serajzadeh, "Non-attending Believers: Religiosity of Iranian Youth and Its Implications for Secularization Theory" (paper presented at the World Congress of Sociology, Montreal, July 26-August 1, 1998).
28. For an account of such events, see Yaghmaian, Social Change in Iran, 61-65.
29. Awad al-Otaibi and Pascal Menoret, "Rebels without a Cause? Politics of Deviance in Saudi Society" (unpublished manuscript).
30. See Oskar Verkaik, Migrants and Militants: Fun and Urban Violence in Pakistan (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005).
31. Nowrooz, 29 Mehr AH 1380/October 21, 2001.
32. See "Zaman faraghat va tafrih" ("Leisure Time and Amusement"), Aftab-e Yaz, April 3, 2001;
33. "Shad Zistan-e Zanan" ("How Can Women Live with Joy?"), Dowran-e Emrooz, 20 Bahman AH 1379/February 8, 2001.
34. Report on the seminar "Approaches to the Concept of Living," cited in Aftab-e Yaz, January 9, 2001;
35. and Aftab-e Yaz, January 11, 2001.
36. See "Khandidan aslan zesht neest" ("Laughing Is Not Dreadful"), Iran, March 18, 2001.
37. See Morteza Nabawi, Resalat, October 27, 2001.
38. See Jean-Michel Cadiot, Associated Press, IranMania.com (accessed August 20, 2001).
39. See Michael Theodoulou, "Iran's Culture War Intensifies," Christian Science Monitor, August 21, 2001.
40. Charles Recknagel and Azam Gorgin, "Iran: New Morality Police," Radio Free Europe, July 26, 2000.
41. See Nowrooz, 20 and 21 Mordad AH 1380/August 11-12, 2001.
42. See Koran 3:104, 3:110, 9:71.
43. For an excellent survey of discussions and debates about the subject, see Michael Cook, Forbidding Wrong in Islam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
44. Cook, Forbidding Wrong in Islam, 3.
45. Cook, Forbidding Wrong in Islam, 98, 102. Hafez of Shiraz, one of the greatest Persian poets, critically takes note of the puritanical suppression of joy in his days: Do you know what the harp and the lute are saying? "Drink wine on the quiet: allegations of apostasy are being made." They're saying, "Do not hear or divulge hints of love"; It is a hard saying which they are expressing. Love's dignity and lovers' grace are being pillaged: The young are prohibited and the old rebuked. From The Collected Lyrics of Háfiz Shíráz, trans. Peter Avery (Cambridge: Archetype, 2007), 255.
46. See Franz Rosenthal, Humor in Early Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1956), 4.
47. Cook, Forbidding Wrong in Islam, 100.
48. According to Rosenthal, a large number of humorous tales from Arabic literature are collected by René Basset in the voluminous work Mille et un contes, récits et légendes arabes (A Thousand and One Arab Tales, Stories, and Legends) (Paris, 1924);
49. see Rosenthal, Humor in Early Islam.
50. Samuli Schielke, "Snacks and Saints: Mawlid Festivals and the Politics of Festivity, Piety, and Modernity in Contemporary Egypt" (PhD diss., University of Amsterdam, 2006).
51. Inshad (religious singing) focuses on "glorification of God, praise and love for his Prophet, expressions of spiritual experience, and religious exhortations." Aghani diniyya are sung by an ordinary mutrib (performers) but have religious lyrics. They may be sung by secular singers or by a sheikh or sheikha. Aghani diniyya are different from inshad in "vocal timbres, melodic styles, improvisations, contexts and religious intentions." Inshad is sung by munshidin (religious singers), not secular singers. See Michael Frishkopf, "Inshad Dini and Aghani Diniyya in Twentieth Century Egypt: A Review of Styles, Genres, and Available Recordings," Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 34 (2000): 167, 179.
52. On premodern times, see Cook, Forbidding Wrong in Islam, 101.
53. Cook, Forbidding Wrong in Islam, 125.
54. See also Hamid Algar, Wahhabism: A Critical Essay (New York: Islamic Publications International, 2002).
55. Cook, Forbidding Wrong in Islam, 126-27;
56. Algar, Wahhabism.
57. Ahmad Rashid, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001), 105-7, 217-19.
58. See also Amy Waldman, "No TV., No Chess, No Kites: Taliban Codes from A to Z," New York Times, November 22, 2001.
59. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Statistical Yearbook (Paris: UNESCO, 1960-75).
60. Cited in Hamid Nafici, "The Iranian Cinema under the Islamic Republic," American Anthropologists (1995): 548.
61. Expressed by Israel's foremost "revisionist historian," Benny Morris; cited in Joel Beinin, "No More Tears: Benny Morris and the Road from Liberal Zionism," Middle East Report, no. 230 (2004): 40.
62. See M. Muhsim Khan, ed., Al-Bukhari (Sahih) (Beirut: Dar al-Arabia, 1985), vol. 8, hadith no. 138.
63. Khan, Al-Bukhari, vol. 8, hadith no. 56.
64. Khan, Al-Bukhari, vol. 8, hadith no. 114.
65. Khan, Al-Bukhari, vol. 8, hadiths nos. 175 and 176.
66. Al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Salat, no. 435; Kitab al-Jumu'a, no. 897; Kitab al-Johad, no. 2686, cited in Muhammad Khalid Masud, "Arts and Religion in Islamic Jurisprudence" (unpublished manuscript, Leiden, 2003).
67. See Maribel Fierro, "The Treatises against Innovations (kub al bid'a)," Der Islam 69 (1992): 204-46.
68. See also Muhammad Umar Memon, Ibn Taimiya's Struggles against Popular Religion (The Hague: Mouton, 1976).
69. See Abi Ja'far Kolaini, Usoul-e Kafi, 4 vols. (Tehran: Wafa, AH 1382/2003), 3:485-87.
70. Kolaini, Usoul-e Kafi, 3:175-78, 193.
71. Khan, Al-Bukhari, vol. 8, hadith no. 108.
72. Khan, Al-Bukhari, vol. 8, hadith nos. 52, 53, 64.
73. Kolaini, Usoul-e Kafi, 3:485-87.
74. Kolaini, Usoul-e Kafi, 3:271-76.
75. Kolaini, Usoul-e Kafi, 3:161-62.
76. Masud, "Arts and Religion in Islamic Jurisprudence."
77. Khan, Al-Bukhari, vol. 8, hadith no. 95.
78. Khan, Al-Bukhari, vol. 1, hadith no. 38.
79. Khan, Al-Bukhari, vol. 8, hadith no. 472.
80. Khan, Al-Bukhari, vol. 8, hadith no. 73.
81. Muhammad Khalid Masud, personal communication with author, Leiden, 2003.
82. See Sayyid Hojjat Mahdavi, "Youths and the Crisis of Leisure," Nowrooz, 9 Tir AH 1380/June 30, 2001.
83. Cited in Nowrooz, 23 Tir AH 1380/July 14, 2001.
84. Nowrooz, 16 Tir AH 1380/July 7, 2001.
85. See Guiv Namazi, "Jeans, Short-Sleeves, Bright Color: Never!" Nowrooz, 17 Tir AH 1380/July 8, 2001, 8.
86. See Lacey B. Smith, Fools, Martyrs, Traitors: The Story of Martyrdom in the Western World (New York: Knopf, 1997).
87. See Weber, Sociology of Religion, 236-40.
88. See John Kent, "Christianity: Protestantism," in The Concise Encyclopedia of Living Faiths, ed. R. C. Zaehner (Boston: Beacon, 1959), 121.
89. On the influence of reason on human conduct, see Weber, Sociology of Religion, 242.
90. See Barbara Ehrenreich, "Transcendence, Hope, and Ecstasy: A Historical Look at Political Passion and Fun," Z Magazine, September 1998, www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/EHRENREICHsept98.htm.
91. Crane Brinton, Anatomy of Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1965), 180.
92. See also Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 66-67.
93. Brinton, Anatomy of Revolution, 218-23.
94. E. P. Thomson, "Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism," in his Customs in Common (London: Penguin, 1991), 401. See also Ehrenreich, "Transcendence, Hope, and Ecstasy."
95. Brinton, Anatomy of Revolution, 188-89.
96. For a more elaborate study of cultural politics under the Bolsheviks, see Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Cultural Front: Power and Culture in Revolutionary Russia (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1992).
97. Brinton, Anatomy of Revolution, 180, 220.
98. See Vida Hajebi Tabrizi, Dad-e bidad: Nakhostin zendan-e zanan-e siyassi (Memoir of Iranian Women Fedaii Guerrillas) (Tehran Enteshrat-e Baztab-Negar, AH 1383/2004), 38, 39, 67, 75, 127-28.
99. Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), quoted in Ehrenreich, "Transcendence, Hope, and Ecstasy."
100. Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, 92.
101. Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose, trans. William Weaver (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983).
102. Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-structure (Chicago: Aldine, 1969).
103. Historically, carnivals in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries represented an institutionalized form of dancing mania, whereby the poor classes would circle hand in hand and continue dancing together for hours in a wild delirium until they fell to the ground in exhaustion. Participants engaged for days in feasting, drinking, performing, and dancing, as well as animal sacrifice. In the sixteenth century French peasants would spend a total of three months of the year in carnival festivities.
104. Cited in Jebhe, 22 Esfand AH 1377/March 13, 1999, 8.
105. "The most dangerous thing that threatens humanity is for men to forget devotion to God, to establish cultural centers instead of mosques and churches, and to be driven by film and art rather than prayer and supplication," according to Muhamad Taqui Mesbah Yazdi, a prominent conservative cleric; cited in Iran Emrooz, April 1, 2002, www.iran-emrooz.net.
106. "We will wage a creative war against them, with more poems, more art, more singing," according to the singer. Reported by Mohammed Daraghmeh, "Militants Trying to Restrict Arts, as Battle over Character of Future Palestinian State Starts," Arabic Media Internet Network, July 12, 2005.
107. See Theodore Roszak, "The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society and Its Youthful Opposition (London: Faber and Faber, 1969).
108. Some have spoken of "pious fun" by referring to the "Islamic musicians" who use a musical genre like rap or hip-hop to convey religious lyrics as a means for da'wa. The central purpose in these performances is not simply fun but religious mission, Since spontaneity is either missing or suppressed (e.g., to ensure "normative conduct" women singers wear particularly conservative dress and refrain from moving their bodies) the result becomes a kind of "controlled fun." For such Islamic musicians, see www.muslimhiphop.com, www.pearlsofislam.com, and www.dawamedia.com.
109. See for instance Ayatollah Khamenei's lectures on youths, Javan az manzar-e rahbari (Youth from the Perspective of the Leadership) (Tehran: Daftar-e Nashr-e Farhang-e Eslami, AH 1380/2001).
110. According to Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, cited in Shalamche, Mehr AH 1377/September-October 1998, 11.
111. See Lynne Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 56. For Bolshevik Russia,
112. see Fitzpatrick, Cultural Front;
113. see also Sheila Fitzpatrick, Alexander Rabinowitch, and Richard Stites, eds., Russia in the Era of NEP: Explorations in Soviet Society and Culture (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991).
114. See Algar, Wahhabism.
115. Algar, Wahhabism, 48-49.